in the past, I tried clindesse. didn't work. I tried clindamycin. didnt work. then i tried the b6 regime that was discussed here..didnt work..

acidophilus pills did REALLY make the smell go away, though.

but i figured it was time to suck it up and demand a flagyl prescription...the side effects do not sound pleasant. But perhaps flagyl and continuing to take the probiotics would finally make this problem go away

i went to my doctor's, but i had to see a nurse practitioner because my original doctor had left the office. whatever. i didnt care. i just wanted help...

the nurse told me that i'm paranoid..that my problem isnt that bad...that this is normal...and that 'i'm young, just wait til all the problems you'll have when you're older'

i felt kinda dumb...but whatever. gimme the prescription and i'm out.

too bad she messed up the prescription. my pharmacist said he'd call my doctor today and get it sorted out, then call me when it's ready to pick up

now im worried that something went wrong..again. what if he never calls? should i stop by tomorrow and just check if its ready? does flagyl take awhile to get? gah.

I googled vaginal beta strep infections, found a question that was asked about it. The women that replied...I think she said that she wasn't a doctor...but she attached serveral links for the women's husband who asked the question. Her symtoms were irritation and itching.

Of course, as always, there are different opinions about this strep infection. As to where or how you became a carrier or how one was infected. Then it went from saying no need to worry....then another that said it's been linked to UTI"S. Anyone who knows are thinks that they may be a carrier might like to read it (if they haven't already)

Morphia- have you seen any dermologists? Might be something to consider.

Some researchers believe the beta strep was picked up by women at the OB or gyno office..hmmmm then they say that men cannot pass it to us..which is confusing...I mean if you can "catch it" at a doctors office..then why is it impossible for the man to transfer it to us? Maybe they don't carry it or have this bacteria in the flora?? dunno.

It was said that many women (up to 30%) carry it, but mainly it just hangs out in the gastro tract, throat and rectum..it's when it gets into the urinary tract or vagina that it may cause concern (mainly out of fear of the women passing it the fetus during delivery)

It also said that you may be a carrier now, but 10 years from now...not be??

Arj75: Product of the milk man? LMFAO.......I have to eat Soy ice cream, soy cheese and drink soy milk but it's still good. I don't have a severe case but if I do drink or eat any dairy, I'll fart for hours.lol You know what's funny? Yogurt does not hurt my stomach at all and doesn't that have dairy in it?

I have never tried soy ice cream. I bought soy milk a couple months ago..and I liked the flavor much better than milk. But then i started reading about soy..and how it mimics estrogen and I thought..like i need anymore estrogen.(I'm thinking now that I have WAY TOO MUCH. lol Then I found an article saying Real soy is good because while it does pose as estrogen...it stops bonds from toxins that can pose as estrogen too...

Even yogurt burns my stomach if it's empty. The really sad part is, if I want soy ice cream, or soy yogurt, or cheese..whatever...i have to drive over an hour away. I'm from a town that is full of Jerry Springer show people waiting to get their fame...hell, I'm lucky to find soysauce here. If the grocers don't sell enough of it...they don't stock it..that's where my problems are.

I just bought some supposedly "fresh" veggies from the grocery store (today)...everything had fucking mold all in the bottom of the pack..of course packed so you couldn't see it until you got home. I'm sorry but if the crap is molded...you think it's safe to eat..or even has any vitamins left in it? hmmm, don't think so. I have a list some where of what vitamins are lost as foods loose their "freshness", what vitamins are destroyed when they are over-cooked, and if they are not stored in the correct containers, or if the are exposed to light for too long after they are picked...again vitamin loss.

I stopped at a 'mom and pop' fruit stand and bought some greenbeans..got them home..dry as a bone inside. Maybe I should just go back to eating big macs.

I did see where Krogers (hour away) had cow milk with probiotics in it.. I thought that was cool...had never seen it before...for all I know it may have been around for years..

Arj75: Product of the milk man? LMFAO.......I have to eat Soy ice cream, soy cheese and drink soy milk but it's still good. I don't have a severe case but if I do drink or eat any dairy, I'll fart for hours.lol You know what's funny? Yogurt does not hurt my stomach at all and doesn't that have dairy in it?

I am some-what lactose intolerant...couldn't drink milk, or eat milk products at all in my childhood at. I still don't drink milk because it causes my stomach to hurt badly!! but I can eat cheese, yogurt, or ice cream as long as I have something "underneath it" beforehand..and it doesn't bother me that bad. I really don't want to be one of those mean old ladies that have a huge hunch in their back and has to use a cane to shuffle around. I have mild scoliosis...only noticable to me and radiologists. It hasn't progressed, and began pre-teen. Researchers don't know what the cause is...anything they don't know is usually pointed at the family gene pool...however, unless I was adopted, no one else in my family has this. (Maybe I'm product of the milk man? lol)

BLW1084 - Go through the thread and read Lori's blog. You will find lots of helpfull ideas on how to treat B.V. What we have all found is, what works for me, may not work for you, therefore, you have to experiment to find out what works for you. She has a HUGE list of different products and such that have had excellent results, and some that have had ZERO results.

Hi all I am new here. I was looking up bv and found this site.I found out I had this in March. I have been treated three sperate times. Only once did it temporarily go away. I was so happy. Then I had sex and it was back. At this point I have spent upwards of 200 dollars on trying to make this go away. I need help so bad. I am afraid and embarrased even to have sex because of the smell. It's awful. And it's there no matter how often I bathe. At this point I can honestly say it is ruining my sex life. I'm only 22 and the hubby is 24. I can't expect him to stay celibate the rest of his life. It all started when I had to take a stupid antibiotic for strep throat. That's when I got it the first time and it's been downhill ever since.Do you all have any advice besided wearing cotton underwear don't douch etc. I do these things. I have it right now and I am dreading going back to the doctor. I feel gross and dirty. I just want this to be done with. I have never had a sickness or bacterial thing that has made me feel so hopeless. Please help.

I also had Group B strep and I was wondering if this could be part of it. If so I'm in trouble because I don't have a spleen and that is what fights the strep types of bacteria. I am confident that it is BV because the Wet prep test showed the "clue" cells. So, I'm going to focus on getting the lactobacillis back in my body.

I had the bypass just about 10 years ago when they were doing the radical one. They cut my stomach into about 1/4th of its size and moved the "tubing" that leads out of it. Because of this I don't absorb B-12 at all through the stomach. I had pretty much every complication there is possible. The first surgery failed before I even got out of the hospital and was leaking from one side to the other. I got a life threatening pnuemonia and they couldn't fix it. I was so full of antibiotics that I probably had more of them in my system than I did blood!

I was then horribly anemic because they didn't tell me at first that I needed B-12 shots. I had 2 hernia repair surgeries, one with a tummy tuck. I also had a breast reduction and lift, and a thigh and butt lift where they removed a ton of skin. I went from a size 34W to a size 8. My health, and trying to reclaim it has been a mission for the last 10 years and now I have to deal with this and I can't help but feel like the bypass and lack of nutrition has led to this. There is nothing I can do to reverse it and am not sure I would want to, but at least I can do the best I can do to educate myself.

Oh, and to answer the question about meals.. I do purposeful grazing...LOL.. I don't eat very big meals and snack through out the day.

As for the men..yes, I think they can pass it on to us. If they have it in their prostate then they have it in the seminal fluid. Even if they ejaculate outside of us they still "leak". If their systems are weakend then their bacterial balance can be off as well. They don't have the hormonal cycles to magnify the situation, but they can still have an over growth. My now ex husband had problems with his prostate years ago. He went to the urologist who told him he had an infection and the best thing for him was more sex. Oh..great... go fill your wife with bacteria that she can't fight off as easily!! Idiots.

Khalia...thanks for the welcome. I'm not sure about ferritin levels. I will ask and check around to see what I can find out. I do know that it is known to mask B12 deficiencies, so it is recommended to get enough B12 also with increased folic acid amounts. No, it doesn't hurt my stomache. Thanks for the Zinc tip. My teenage son has acne too.

The brand of acidophilus I picked up is YourLife Acidophilus Plus with a half billion live cells per capsule. It has lactic acid bacteria complex and bifidobacteria. It needs no refridgeration.

Newlife.. Welcome!! I'm new here too and also very thankful for this board. I am taking acidophilus tablets now. What strength are you taking? The one that I have is 20 billion and has to be refrigerated. My doc said I only needed to take one, but I think they killed every lactobacillis thingy in my body at some point so I'm impatient to get it back..lol. Does the folic acid bother your stomache at all? I've also heard that Zinc is a BIG help with BV. So, I'm taking that and my teenage son started taking it as well for his acne and he is looking the best he has in years and that is the only thing we did differently.

Precious.... are you saying your hubby doesn't know about the BV? Read my post below about men and BV. It may be that he is reinfecting you and needs to be treated as well. I have been reading more on the bacteria that causes BV and its involvement in the male "system". There are some urologists that are looking at chronic infections with this bug as being a trigger for prostate cancer. It starts out with inflamation and moves on to other nasty things.

For your support, I hope your hubby is understanding. I would be upset if he didn't respect my wishes for privacy and I'm very sorry that this is affecting your life as much as it is. The ladies here seem to be very knowledgable and I'm glad you peeked in. *HUGS*

I am new to this forum and have actually never posted or chatted before. However, while researching this topic I stumbled onto your blog. I too have been suffering from BV for all of my adult life. Yes, really, since puberty set in. To make a long story short, through earnest prayer, I recently found another site, www.earthclinic.com. On there I learned that folic acid and acidophilus tablets have been used to cure BV with excellent results. I have been taking three 400 mcg tablets of folic acid a day for the past two days along with two acidophilus tablets. I purchased these supplements at the local grocery store. This morning was day three and I smelled and felt so much better I cried and thanked God before showering. I feel that this is it. In the spirit of trying everything, I strongly encourage you to try this too.

I was so inspired by your posts to continue looking for natural remedies. I was at my wits end and considering metro-gel again. My doctor has given me refill prescriptions because this has been such an ongoing saga for me. I knew I would just be stepping on the BV-yeast merry-go-round once again. I was also put on Yasmin birth control which made my PMS and infections worse. I stopped taking them.

to all the ladies: is it possible b.v. can be smelled by other people? I am very self conscious and worried people can smell b.v. from me. What are some products you guys can recommend that I use to keep things in control. I used today restore vitamin c tablets for two days and it was a living hell. Do not waste your money on that garbage. it gave me a yeast infection and made the smell ten times worse. I hate when i try to keep things in control then all of a sudden I try something new and it just makes things worse. Now i have to use tercazol for the yeast and acidic gel for the smell. This is tearing apart my relationship with my husband. I dont like him creeping up on me when im using the restroom. he makes a big deal about it. am I wrong? Another thing is that i hate going out. If i do i tend to want to leave quickly. should i tell him about bv? I feel like he will not have pitty on me if i do tell him. he'll tell me to get over it since i let it control me.

Thanks Kahlia, I had forgotten what all functions the spleen does serve to in our bodies, I still have mine. thank goodness. What I am missing are my adenoids. (I know that they are part of our lymphatic tissue, but other than that...no clue of what they do. Do they even know?

I know exactly what you mean. In my case I had a VERY rare disorder of the pancreas. Less than 15 people in the world had been diagnosed with it at the time, but they suspected it was caused by the gastric bypass surgery. I am actually one of 6 people in the last Mayo Clinic research paper on the disorder. Guess we all would like a little fame, but I would prefer it be for something fun, like winning the lottery tomorrow!!! LOL....

Anyway, with me, my blood sugars were so messed up that I was going so low they were surprised I hadn't died or at least gone into a coma. One day I woke up from a nap and my blood sugar was a 24. My doc said it was a miracle I woke up at all. Through out all of that I kept getting sick and they kept putting me on antibiotics. Then I would get what we thought was a yeast infection and I would be treated for that. Heck, it could have been BV because it appears that that little lactobacillis bacteria isn't that resiliant in my body at least.

I was also so anemic and not absorbing iron that I had to have IV iron, which I would have an allergic reaction to and they would have to give me steroids to counter. I am still really low on ferritin, but they don't want to do the IV Iron unless they absolutely have to. So, I need to find a way to get more ferritin.

Then, following the surgery they had to go back in the next day to save my life because I was bleeding internally. I crashed in the recovery room and ended up with them running down the hall with my bed while the resident yelled into her phone, "We're headed to ICU, she's crashing". I survived that and returned 5 days after discharge with an infected cyst pocket in my chest cavity. They had to put in a drain tube (they DON'T put you out for that) and the only thing it cultured was Candida. Yep, Candida was growing its own little city not too far from my heart. My doc said that I was very lucky that it was enclosed because if it had gotten into my blood stream I would have had about a 1% chance of surviving. They said that a blood infection with Candida is much more fatal than a bacterial infection. My doc told me that I was the most amazing patient he had ever had. Considering he was the head of surgery at Mayo I took that as a compliment.

I've been through the wringer over the last few years and I am bound and determined to get this damn BV thing solved. I figure that I am a tougher bitch than that damn BV anyday. I survived the pneumonia that almost killed me, several other things I haven't even mentioned, almost bleeding to death at the best hosiptal in the world, and my battle with the internal candida. As far as I'm concerned, this BV is annoying and frustrating, but it is a challenge that I fully intend to meet and win. BV...be afraid... be VERY afraid... this bitch is pissed and not going to take it anymore!

Thanks Kahlia, I had forgotten what all functions the spleen does serve to in our bodies, I still have mine. thank goodness. What I am missing are my adenoids. (I know that they are part of our lymphatic tissue, but other than that...no clue of what they do. Do they even know?

This crap just bothers me. I realize that in some cases organs were removed because surgeons had no other options, but a lot of times...there are taken out for the hell of it. Like tonsils for instance. The doctors wanted to remove my son's at one point, and well, I had a problem with that. They don't know what all they do in our body to maintain hemeostatis, so they go ahead and remove them? There are still glands in our bodies, that researchers know they produce hormones, but aren't sure what hormones, or what they are used for.

If our science is advanced enough now to clone sheep, skin, WHO KNOWS whatever else, I don't understand why stem-cell research is not passed. I would only save lives. This Country has lost all other morals and values, so why is this such a big deal?